SEDGLEY PARK     20

EARTH TITANS      25 

National League Division One  

RESPECT is a two-way thing, and when top face bottom it is invariably one-way, with the basement dwellers often in awe of their league leading opponents, but the only respect the Tigers showed the Titans came after the final whistle and by that time it was mutual. 

“We have blown sides away since the start of the season but we were not allowed to do that here,” said Titans’ head coach, Andre Bester. “I don’t know whether Tim Fourie’s presence on the pitch made the difference, but Sedgley were by far the best team we have faced so far.  

“Usually our pack dominates and the backs run in the tries, but we were not allowed to do that. Don’t forget pre-season we faced the likes of Ulster and Saracens and destroyed them in the forwards but Sedgley fronted up and prevented us from doing that.” 

Praise indeed and praise well deserved as the Tigers, led by Director of Rugby Fourie, replacing broken leg victim Jaco Swart in the second row, ran himself into the ground, spurring his charges on to seriously threaten the Titans with only their second defeat of the season.

In the end Sedgley had to settle for just the losing bonus point, but the Titans were a relieved side at the final whistle. 

Both stand-offs – Titans’ Mike Whitehead and Tigers’ former Titan, Phil Jones – swapped early penalties to make it 3-3 with just four minutes gone. 

Five minutes later the visitors developed lineout ball, with Stephanus Jacobsz making the hardest yards before scrum-half Joe Bedford popped up as the extra man to go over by the left-hand corner flag to restore the visitors’ lead. 

But Sedgley simply rolled up their metaphorical sleeves and silently breathed a collective, “enough is enough” and took the game to the league leaders. 

After showing they meant business in the tight, especially the scrum where the Titans substituted prop Steve Croall as early as the 25^th minute, the Tigers began to throw the ball around and one move, following a successful lineout take saw Newton and Skurr drive the ball deep into Titans’ territory where they were rewarded with a second penalty which Jones duly dispatched to make it 6-8. 

Despite having the bulk of the possession the Titans were stopped in their tracks by a bulldog effort from the entire Sedgley 15, who simply refused to allow the visitors to score another try. 

In attack the Tigers ran hard at their opponents with Jon Skurr – playing with a broken toe – popping up all over the show, driving the ball into contact time and again, while in another move Ian Voortman, Chris Wilkinson, Jimmy Ponton and Jamie Albinson combined well to take the ball as far as the Titans’ 22. 

Trailing by just two points at the turnaround, the test was always going to be how the Tigers would handle the third quarter. Last season the first 20 minutes after half-time cost them dearly and it has been a similar story so far this campaign. So things did not look promising when within two minutes of the re-start the Titans drove lineout ball forward, working the phases before spinning the ball out to the left, where centre Brendan Burke was on hand to nip over by the corner flag to make it 6-13. 

On 50 minutes a similar move sucked in the Sedgley cover and this time impressive Number 8 Jannie Bornman did the business to extend his side’s lead to 6-20. 

But just when it looked like game over, different Tigers began to step-up to the plate. A Mark Jones’ kick ahead resulted in the Titans’ receiver being bundled into touch and following the lineout the Tigers were awarded a scrum five metres from the Titans’ line. Jamie Albinson fed Phil Jones whose outrageous dummy wrong-footed both centres, creating a gap out of nothing for him to glide through and go over close to the posts to give himself a straight forward conversion to reduce the arrears to 13-20 on the hour. 

From the re-start Ledua Jope, on for Jimmy Ponton, showed all his Fijian love of the running game to tear downfield with the ball in one hand, supported by Mark Jones, Voortman and Chris Hall, with only an accidental off-side killing the move. Phil Jones then missed a penalty. 

With three minutes to go it looked like the Tigers’ hopes of at least drawing a losing bonus point out of the match had been destroyed when pressure built-up by a succession of penalties ended with a predictable lineout take, catch-and-drive and pass along the line to set-up replacement Bernard Hennessey for a corner flag flop to put the Titans into a 13-25 lead.

But once more the Tigers went straight back down the other end, determined to emerge from the game with something more substantial than praise. Voortman and replacement Petrus Du Plessis ran the ball back, with the South African prop stopped illegally and with nothing to lose – and no time to lose it in anyway – the Tigers ran the ball from the resulting penalty.

Jope’s inside pass to Wilkinson running the angle set the fullback up for a charge to the Titans‘ posts and another easy conversion for Phil Jones to take the Tigers to within five points of the Titans and a point that could prove to be precious as the season progresses. 

For Fourie, the difference between this and other performances was not him but something more personal: “Maybe being scared of being humiliated helped us but on the other hand we did not allow them to do what they wanted for the majority of the game,” he said. 

“We fought fire with fire, we got stuck into them and we refused to lie down; my task now is, and always has been, getting the guys to do that consistently.” 

But if bester is right, safety and a climb up the table is just a matter of time away.

“Life is about being patient and having faith. In the New Year they will come good and begin to grind out results; they are not a bottom two team. Clubs will come here and lose and there may possibly be one or two big names among them.”  

SEDGLEY PARK: Wilkinson, Hall, Briers, Craig, Voortman, P. Jones, J. Albinson (Leck 51), Evans (Gazzola 66), M. Jones (Roddam 72), Halsall (Du Plessis 49), T. Fourie (Livesey 74), Norris, Newton, Ponton (Jope 51), Skurr. Replacement not used: T. Albinson. Tries: 2 – P. Jones (58), Wilkinson (80). Conversions: P. Jones 2. Penalties: P. Jones 2.  

EARTH TITANS: Claassens (Hennessey 62), Tuohy, Burke, Buchanan (Steenson 61), Griffiths, Whitehead, Bedford, Walsh, Conroy, Croall (Hopcroft 23), Jacobsz, Lund (McCormish 71), H. Fourie (McGowan 51), Cochrane, Bornman. Replacements not used: Hanna, Blackwood. Tries: 4 – Bedford (7), Burke (42), Bornman (50), and Hennessey (77). Conversions: Whitehead 1. Penalties: Whitehead 1.